Nutcracker Sweet
by SRV42
Summary: When Sarah was a little girl, she received a goblin king doll for Christmas...
1. Snow Falls

So… Is 6 years too long for an update? I really wanted to finally finish this for you. Feedback I need: should this turn into a prequel for a story in present time with Sarah and Jareth, where Sarah remembers these events? Just wondering if the plot bunny should become reality. Thanks for reading!

**Nutcracker Sweet**

Like most Christmas tales, this one begins with snow. A snow that had begun with light, fluffy flakes, but quickly escalated into a blowing, stinging storm. In the middle of this blizzard sat a fairly large home, trimmed with evergreen and glowing lights as was tradition. This was the home of Sarah Williams.

You may have heard of Sarah Williams; you may recall her journey through the labyrinth of the goblin king, Jareth. Perhaps you have read and re-read her story, learning about the young woman who recruited the inhabitants of the strange land to her side, and managed to defeat a legendary king. But before Sarah Williams was a determined young woman, she was a thoughtful little girl, looking out the window at the snow.

After staring at the swirling snow for twenty minutes, Sarah had taken to peering at her family through the slats of the banister, watching them gather, laughing happily. Her heart lifted in anticipation. After a long day of waiting, the children had been banished upstairs while the adults readied the room. Every year, the tree was larger and larger, and the number of packages lying beneath it increased.

"Do you think Santa remembered my bicycle?" Sarah's cousin, Fritz, whispered. The little girl smiled.

"I'm sure he did; Santa knows everything." She grinned at him, and listened carefully to the sounds below. Suddenly, the sound of ringing jingle bells broke the adult conversations. The children hushed their play, and strained to hear the sounds rising upstairs from the floor below.

"Santa, you made it!" A voice Sarah recognized as her mother addressed an unseen figure. Sarah's eyes grew wide as she turned to her cousin. William, yet another cousin, joined the pair. "I'm sure that the children will be glad to see you," Linda Williams continued.

"He's here!" the three children huddled, trying desperately to get a glance of the room below.

"Children!" Sarah's father's voice called them, a cue for the mad dash down the stairs. Donned in Christmas pajamas, five children ventured downstairs, stepping on each others' toes in their hurry. Two large, wooden doors hid the room from sight. Sarah was nearly hopping on her toes in excitement. Her mother and father grinned, as did her other aunts and uncles, who were lined up on opposite sides of the doors.

"Merry Christmas," called Aunt Rosie, as she swung open the doors and let the children into the wonderland within.

Never had Sarah seen such a beautiful tree! The presents were piled as high as she was tall, and the branches of the monstrous evergreen were dripping with glass, tinsel, crystal and gold. Every color of the rainbow was represented on the glowing branches of the Christmas tree. The children stopped their frantic run to gawk at the brilliant display. William, the mischievous one of the bunch, started shaking presents almost immediately thereafter.

"William, put them down," the child's mother scolded. But the excitement was contagious, and soon the adults were dancing around, as giddy as the children. Before presents could be opened, however, Sarah's godfather, her mother's brother, Dorin, had to arrive. Sarah pressed her nose to the window, peering out into the swirling snow and listening for the bells that would announce her godfather's arrival.

An hour and a quarter later, the children were growing restless. It was hard enough to sit still and talk to the adults on a normal day, let alone Christmas! After a long wait, however, a knock sounded at the door, and the children could hear someone stamping the snow off his boots upon the mat.

"Uncle Dorin!" Sarah's childish shout made the adults pause in their discussions. Their gazes turned toward the young Williams child, who had run and leapt into the arms of a hunched but sturdy older gentleman. The relations smiled in recognition. "What did you bring us, godfather?" Little Sarah grinned up at the man, remembering the unusual and magical things that usually happened when their uncle came to call.

"Greedy little thing, aren't you?" Sarah's godfather scolded her playfully, trying to brush snow off his coat and appease the squirming child at the same time. Sarah simply smiled innocently, and searched her uncle's coat pockets. She was rewarded with a handful of sweets and a warning look from her mother.

"Stop loading them up with sugar, Dorin, we'll never get them to sleep." Linda Williams smiled despite her words, and took the sweets from her daughter's hand, save one. Sarah smiled sheepishly, then winked at her uncle; she knew that more candies would be forthcoming later in the evening.

As soon as the adults were settled, and Uncle Dorin had hung his large black coat on a hook by the door, the children knew that it was time to open their gifts. They patiently tried to curb their excitement, acting on their best behavior in hopes that they would induce the adults to begin the festivities.

"All right," William's father said finally, "Who gets to go first?" The next hour was a flurry of wrapping and ribbons, new toys and exclamations.

The occupation that Dorin claimed was toymaker. He repaired and created toys from the comfort of his large, sprawling Victorian home. In reality, however, he was somewhat of an inventor. On this occasion, he had brought a life sized doll, which he retrieved from his car. When he turned the knob on the doll's back, it marched around the room, grinning plastically. Dorin announced that this was a gift for all of the children. Fritz laid claim to it until his mother told him to please behave himself.

Uncle Dorin's next gift was to Fritz, who had ceased, for the moment, running about the room flying his new airplane. This gift was wrapped in a bright blue paper, dotted with silver. Fritz ripped into the package, dropping the shredded paper on the floor by his feet.

"It's a huge rat!" he shrieked. "The king of all the rats, he's the ruler of a great army. . ." Fritz went off with the new toy, creating a dream world of his own as he twirled it about in one hand, toy airplane in the other. William was next, and received a toy soldier, which boasted brilliantly painted shining metal.

The last gift went to Sarah, who had been patiently breathing her appreciation of the gifts her cousins had received. Her eyes lit up when she saw the gift that godfather Dorin had given to her.

"He's the goblin king," the man explained, smiling softly at the girl's reaction. The king of the goblins was perfect, from his spiky blonde hair to the midnight blue cape that wrapped around him. He held a crystal in his hand, holding it out as if to offer it to the viewer. His eyes were painted a mismatched blue and green, and looked so realistic that Sarah could almost see him blinking.

"He's beautiful," Sarah breathed, cradling in her arms like a baby.

"I want to play with it!" Fritz grabbed the doll out of Sarah's hand.

"No! The girl shouted, but it was too late. Fritz ran about the room, holding the doll aloft, making it fly as if it were his toy airplane. "Give it back!" Sarah squealed, chasing her cousin. But it was too late; with a crack, Fritz flew the goblin king right into a wall, and the crystal in his hand fell unceremoniously onto the floor. "Fritz!" The wronged girl sobbed, grabbing the doll back and cradling it in her arms.

"Fritz Williams, get over here." Fritz hung his head guiltily, not as sorry for stealing the doll as he was for the mishap. Uncle Dorin shook his head briefly, then smiled at the teary eyed girl.

"Come now, child," he said, "bring him here." Sarah sadly brought the goblin king over to her uncle, and placed the tiny crystal into his large hand. Uncle Dorin reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a tiny tube of clear liquid. He applied it to the bottom of the crystal, and magically repaired it, placing it back in the hand of the mysterious king. Sarah grinned and clutched the doll to her tightly.

"Now, now child, don't break him again. Gently." Fearful of breaking her new doll once more, Sarah placed him under the tree, back toward the wall so he wouldn't be disturbed.

"I'll let you rest and come back and get you later," Sarah promised the doll, moving to rejoin her cousins in their latest play. After hours of Christmas joy and festivities, however, the goblin king doll was completely forgotten.


	2. The Great Battle

Late that night, Sarah lie in bed, eyes scrunched closed. "Go to sleep," she told herself, "so Santa will come. You have to SLEEP." But as often happens, the more she tried to sleep, the more her mind would wander to the wonderful things downstairs in the room with the tree. Suddenly, she remembered that she had left the wonderful goblin king behind the tree. She sat up, slid to the side of the bed, and searched in the dark with her feet for her fuzzy Christmas slippers.

She padded to the staircase, listening in the dark for sounds of stirring from her parents, cousins or other relatives. An old clock ticked the minutes somewhere down the hall; moonlight coming in an upstairs window cast odd shadows on the floor. Taking a deep breath, she made her way down the stairs and toward the room that was glowing with the effect of the Christmas tree lights.

Still a small child, Sarah was used to a world where things were much larger and taller than she; however as she approached the wonderful tree, it seemed to be growing larger and larger! The gifts that had been stacked neatly underneath were now twice her size; and oddest of all, the various toys and baubles on the tree and the gifts given earlier were beginning to move about as if they were alive! Out of nowhere, she saw Fritz's toy rat, now grown to be a large, bulky creature, stomping about with a candy-cane in hand, smashing toys as he went along.

"Enough," she heard, and turned to see her goblin king, no longer a doll, imposing and commanding, addressing the Rat King. "Leave this place and allow these toys to stay in peace." Sarah gasped, her breath catching at the splendor of the striking figure. He heard her and turned, bowing to her slightly. Blushing, Sarah curtsied awkwardly. The goblin king walked over to her, lifted her into the air, and sat her upon a tall gift box that had been sitting nearby. He looked up at her, took her small hand in his gloved one, kissed it, and grinned at her. Enchanted, Sarah watched as he turned and approached the Rat king again, drawing a sword from his hip. The enlivened toys gathered behind him, however to her dismay, she saw rats gathering behind the rat king as well.

A great battle began! Swords clashed, toy airplanes swooped in from the sky, and Sarah wondered that the commotion did not wake the house. Her eyes were fixed upon her goblin king, battling more bravely than all the rest. After much skirmishing, it was at long last left to the rat king and goblin king to decide the battle. They were well matched at swordplay, and the fight progressed for a long while. The rat king at last pushed one of his own rat army into the goblin king to distract him, and was able to gain the advantage. He disarmed his opponent, and the goblin king sank to one knee, unable to defend himself.

Enraged and afraid, Sarah reached down to grab one of her slippers, and with all her might, threw it at the rat king! To her surprise, the rat king stumbled backward, not expecting the assault from behind him, and the goblin king was able to regain his sword and quickly thrust it into his opponent, effectively ending the war along with the monarch's life.

All seemed silent for a moment; Sarah jumped down to the floor and ran to the goblin king to see if he was alright. When she reached him, he reached for her two hands in her own, and to her surprise he knelt down before her.

"How can I thank you for your part in the defeat of the evil rat king? Lady Sarah, my kingdom will be indebted to you forever." Sarah turned red, unused to this form of flattery. She curtsied in her pink nightgown.

"I couldn't let him ruin Christmas," she said, feeling a little silly with all the attention.

"Come," the goblin king voiced, returning to his full height, and extending an arm to her. "Let us journey to my kingdom." As he spoke, a carriage pulled up to them, and Sarah saw that it was a "wild west" carriage that her cousin had received earlier in the day. Instead of horses however, it was pulled by two white mice, adorned brilliantly in holly and bells. The goblin king assisted her so that she could step into the carriage, and after joining her, tucked a blanket around her. No sooner were they seated than the carriage began to move, and dashed away so quickly that the surroundings became a blur.

The wind whipped against Sarah's face, turning her cheeks red; she snuggled down into the blankets. Before long she also felt something wet in the wind, stinging her; the carriage slowed and she was surprised to notice that they were now outside, and snow was falling steadily. The night was dark, and the path they now took was lined with trees. She could see lights in the distance, growing closer as they travelled.

At last they drove up to a large castle, the walk before it lined with tiny lights, bobbing in the air. She thought they were fireflies at first, but on further inspection, they were tiny fairies, each holding little lanterns. Sarah gasped and grinned in delight, watching them as they danced in the air. What lovely things fairies were!

The goblin king helped her from the carriage and escorted her up the path to the castle, as she looked around and around at the dangling lights. She dared a quick glance at her escort and saw that he had been watching her, as she looked curiously around. He grinned at her, and she blushed once again.

"Are you enjoying my castle, Sarah?" he drawled.

"Ye- yes," she stumbled, keeping her gaze ahead, but still clinging to the arm of her goblin king. They entered a great hall, and she saw that there were many little creatures running around. These must be the goblins! They weren't as wonderful and delicate as the fairies outside, but they still were charming in their own way.

The pair headed into a large ballroom where the goblin king's throne sat at one end. She saw that there was another chair seated next to his; to her surprise, he led her to it and ensured that she was seated before taking his own.


End file.
